Kenyan Government orders payment blocking of 27 sports betting firms
Betway, Sportpesa and 1XBET among firms singled out by Kenyan regulators
Kenya’s government has written to three of the country’s biggest mobile payment providers, Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom, requesting they stop processing payments for 27 sports betting firms.
Betway, Sportpesa, Dafabet and 1XBET were among the largest providers to be named by the government in the letter. Other providers named include Betin, Betpawa, Elitebet, PremierBet, Lucky2u, MozzartBet, World Sports Betting, Atari Gaming, Palms Bet and Betboss.
In a letter to the three payment providers, the Kenyan Betting Control and Licensing Board requested the suspension of all payment services and processing of so-called short codes.
The board said the request was due to the non-renewal of the operators’ licences after they failed to prove that they were compliant with Kenyan tax laws.
Kenyan regulators suspended all licence renewals for sports betting firms earlier this month after a multi-agency tax investigation found that despite making a combined Ksh.204bn (£1.5bn) last year, the firms had paid only Ksh.4bn (£31m) in taxes.
“Licences for the following betting firms will not be renewed until they meet the outstanding renewal requirements as well as outcome of ongoing due diligence to determine if they are fit and proper to hold a license from this board,” the letter said.
Under the Kenyan Betting Control and Licensing Board’s proposed new standards, all licensees will undergo a quarterly review to determine their level of compliance, and the cumulative review will be used in deciding if they qualify for renewal or not upon the expiry of the licences.